Clover Hill has set herself an impossible task. Once she learned that only magic could heal her brother–wounded in a catastrophic battle at Amiens–she determined that nothing would stop her from learning the spell that would save his life. The world of H.G. Parry’s electric new novel, The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door, is also struggling to heal from the devastation of World War I. Whatever happened at Amiens led the magicians of England, France, and Germany to close the doors to Faerie so that it could never happen again. Clover knows, however, that the only way to help her brother is to break those doors open again.
One thing I love about the stories Parry spins is that their settings, no matter how fantastic, always feel fully realized. The places Parry’s characters visit have the weight of lived history to them. Parry might have outdone herself with the wonder of Camford University. Camford is where the magical families of England send their children. Students are never told where the university actually is; they only know that it can be reached through a door at Oxford University. Because nearly all of the students are the children of the most elite Britons, Clover keenly feels the vast social gulf between them and herself. So when Alden Lennox-Fontaine spots her in the library reading Paracelsus1, his friendship is a lifeline.
Clover herself tells us that she should have been more cautious around Alden. Saying more would spoil the book, so instead, I will say that I loved what Parry did with her characters. The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door kept surprising me, in all the best possible ways. From a charming magical English university story, the plot dips into international intrigue and rises to stakes that involve more than just Clover’s world. The character development in this book is among the best I’ve ever seen, with plenty of betrayals and redemptions to keep things lively.
On top of all this plot and characterization, Parry pulls off an imaginative and magical reinvention of British history. Just like our Britain after the end of World War I, Clover’s Britain is at a crossroads. On the one hand, the old guard struggle against every change to the social order like a Dutch boy at a dam. Women are grudgingly allowed into universities but are not allowed to actually take a degree and are definitely not permitted to vote. On the other, the massive loss of life during the war meant that it was impossible for everything to go back to way things had been before the war. Young people who might’ve gone into service sought out better paying jobs in cities. Plus, morale had been so damaged by the way the war had been fought by generals and politicians who came up in the previous century that they could never regain the automatic respect they once held; after all, how can you trust the leaders who led nearly an entire generation of men to their deaths? Parry’s story questions privilege and gender and class and ladles in a good helping of magic to keep things entertaining.
As always with Parry’s novels, I highly recommend this one.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
- It’s a shame that we refer to this scientist, theologian, and alchemist by only one name. Paracelsus’s full name is Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. ↩︎